Over the weekend I attended my fifth 1920s Jazz Age Garden Party on Governor’s Island.  The party has its own particular brand of magic.  One feels like they are stepping into the world’s most elaborate movie set, full of the most diverse cast of characters.

Every year I shoot the portraits of the attendees with that mind.  That they are all playing a role in a wistful movie about the 1920s.  Obviously I wasn’t alive in the 1920s, but I think the 1920s had a kind of a wistful quality.  They gave way to the tough 1930s and those celebrating that time can be expected to have a wistful quality of a time never seen again.

A photography style note:

I always shoot these completely spontaneously to capture the movie feeling.  I hardly ever ask anyone to pose.  I actually rather prefer that they don’t pose because the breaks the illusion that I am in a movie.  The imagination is no match for real life, so let’s keep real life out of this as long as we can: